As fast as possible - Turkey again

We'd done 36 hour bus marathon from Bandar Abbas through Shiraz and Tehran to Tabriz. There we met with our friend Payam and his wonderful family. They were so nice to us that we felt they're our family as well. We spent the night in their flat and in the morning continued to Turkey. Payam took us with his car to the end of Tabriz and we hitchhiked from there.

Our drivers were very kind, they even took us further then they'd supposed to go and turned back after that. I'm not even talking about sharing food or drinks, we so got used to it ;) Then we walked a bit to the border crossing (almost everyone was surprised that we didn't take a taxi and some workers were joking about taking us with cement mixer car :) We left Iran on September 18th 2010.


When we arrived in Turkey I happily took off my scarf. Well, I have to admit it was tiring after some time. From the border we hitchhiked to Igdir (we did whatever we could to avoid Agri). We stopped a member of local city council and he arranged us accommodation in a teachers' house. We met three girls who were teachers there and we had some tea with them. 

In the morning, after watching celebration of a national holiday, we continued North. I was amazed and surprised how different it was from every image of Turkey i had in my head. It looked rather like central Slovakia or Romania, mountains were covered with trees, it was so green everywhere. Totally impressive.

Hormuz Island

The first island we visited in Persian Gulf was Hormuz Island. The name may seem familiar now if you follow latest news and heard about Strait of Hormuz.

We went there by small boat with some local people and two goats. Amazing journey. The boat was going very fast so we had to hold on to whatever we could.

First we visited an old Portuguese fort. We didn't know that then but we do now that it's called Fort of Our Lady of the Conception, as it states in Wikipedia (vide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_of_Our_Lady_of_the_Conception_in_Hormoz_island ).

View from top of the fort

View of entrance

It faces another fort (or castle) on Qeshm Island. we found a guide and he showed us around. the fort is almost forgotten and it falls apart because there are not enough funds to take better care of it. We could see how the ground level changed, especially when we entered the church within the fort. The columns seem really small now but you can imagine how high they once were. The good thing is that you can clearly see that arches are made of coral (well, it was 16th century).

There is also a small exhibition of things found there (especially military, like cannons or cannonballs).

After visiting the fort we had to rest because of the heat and sat by a shop. There were children staring at us. Some of them were too afraid to come closer but had to do it anyway, since we were sitting right next to the entrance, trying to catch a patch of shadow. We had some water and continued.

Mohsen invited us for a ride by a boat around the island.

And that's something really worth doing. The island is very diverse, it's covered by sedimentary rock and volcanic layers but it's also very colorful from iron (reddish), salt (white) and shiny mineral on beaches. We could see that water created some caves and it would be very exciting to go canoeing around Hormuz.

The only thing that spoiled the view was litter and crashed boat. I mean, it was not very dirty and i know people live there and it's no reservation but that one thing took away the feeling of visiting a place where civilization hadn't come yet. And some beaches look like such a place. We got off to walk around a bit and saw a cave where water came during high tides.

I don't remember exactly if it was before or after the ride around the island but while we were waiting for another boat, there were some kids playing in the water and when they saw us, tourists, they were shouting "Mister! How are you? Thank you!". We didn't react (except of laughing a bit), so they gave up after a while.

If you ever be around, visit Hormuz and enjoy. But if I ever go back, I guess it will be in December or January :)

Persepolis

We wanted to visit the ceremonial capital of ancient Persia very much. At first, it was supposed to be the furthest we get in Iran but our friend Mohsen encouraged us to go to an island in Persian Gulf. But let's go back to ancient times.

Persepolis was established around 515 BC and was famous for its greatness and then, maybe even more, for its destruction in 330 BC.

Persepolis now doesn't look very much like a city. Most of the buildings are just outlined by short walls, there are no roofs, gates and columns are reaching for the sky.

We also went uphill to see tombs on the hillside and to watch the city from above. We also drank Kofola which we brought all the way from Slovakia.
The taste was still same as home, even after thousands of kilometers by hitchhiking.

Although a lot of reliefs and sculpture from Persepolis are now in museums around the world (among others National Museum in Tehran, British Museum and Metropolitan Museum) the place is still unique.

When we were hanging around close to one tomb we met Khamron. He was sitting in the shadow and waiting for us. We were so surprised by meeting him there. He travelled 13 hours with friend who was our driver from Sarche to Persepolis just to see us for few hours. Would you do that?

Khamron

It's hard to kill us! Part 1/2

In the morning we met with Kamron close to Sio-se-pol bridge. It was beautiful morning, we were accompanied by our lovely hosts. We had to wait for Kamron for a while, but before he arrived we had small re-union with our friends from train: Max and Georg. Finally Kamron shows up and told us that we have to take a bus to get to his village.  So we walked along the river, past through crazy traffic in the city and got to the bus. When we wanted to pay, Kamron forbid us. We didn't feel good to let him pay but he was faster.
So sitting in the bus, talking about past few days after one hour we arrived to Shahrekord. From the bus it looks like small provincial city. What we didn't know is that Shahrekord is among highest towns in Iran, it's 2220 m above sea level. Kamron told us that his village is close to Shahrekord. He went to get some transport for us. One thing was sure, place next to bus station didn't look friendly. When we were waiting for him, some taxi drivers approached us with questions in Persian for which we didn't had answers. Everyone passing by looked suspicious and unfriendly. It wasn't so hot as in Esfahan, but the air was full of dust. Some minutes later Kamron came with some of his friends and we got into two cars and headed out of the town into mountains.
 We were driving for two hours. Kamron with his friend and Gorg and Max were in the first car. We three and our excellent formula 1 driver were in the second car. He was driving on these small roads so fast that we had to wait for the second car for 15 minutes until they arrived to our location next to river.

 

Then again racing started. We made another stop in our driver's village. He wanted to show us his family and house and drink "Chai" with them. Chai means tea and sounds exactly as word tea in Slavic languages.
We got a call from Kamron who was wondering where we were. So in a few minutes we were back on the road going as fast as possible to Sarche.

Sarche was located in small valley, looked small. Our driver told us that he had never been there yet and only 2000 people are living there. Such a small village.
First car entered the village smoothly and parked in some near house. Then it's was our move to slowly get down to the valley. Tony in the front filming interesting view on right side and me with Barbara in the back. Then I saw big crowd of people standing next to two small trucks arguing about something.
I immediately took a photo of them. Twice to be sure. I said:" Hey Tony, look at the right side, take them on the video. It would be nice to have them in our trip documentary." "Sure", he responded and looked with camera on the right side, taking approximately few seconds of HD video. Everything happened so fast. One young guy, he could be 17/19 years old, saw us in the car with camera. He was sitting on the top of one truck and he shouted something pointing on us.

That was the moment when all these people stopped arguing and looked at us. Everyone was silent for one or two seconds. I froze in fear of near future, I guess everyone in the car did.

Then all the people started to run towards our car. Everything in the next paragraphs happened in few minutes, not more than 15-30 minutes.
First thing which I did was removing first photo I took. I took my flash card from camera and I hid it in a secret pocket. I didn't think about it much, it was like a reflex. I had them on the photo and they didn't see me taking it. Tony hid his camera under seat and our driver was trying to calm us down. He said: "it will be OK, i will speak with them in farsi."


No it wasn't OK. From the moment we saw them running to our car, we screamed to driver, "turn the car, let's go out of the village". Actually he couldn't do that. There wasn't enough place to turn over the car on the road. He was also afraid but he still thought that it will be OK when he will be speaking with them. 


They didn't let him speak. Later when we share our memories from the event we realize that not all of them started to run to the car. Some of them started to run to the nearest houses. They probably went for some guns or others to help them. When they came to our car some of them already had some stuff which could be used as a weapons and they tried to drag us out. Two front windows were open. I closed our windows in the back and locked out all doors. I guess it saved our lives that time. Quarter second after crowd enclosed the car they started to strangle our driver and tried to drag him out through the window, because doors were locked. I was locking it immediately after they tried to open them. Fortunately our driver stepped on the accelerator pedal and we moved a meter or two. That surprised the guy who was strangling him and he backed off. Our driver realizing that he had a free throat again, stepped on the accelerator pedal again and at maximum speed went deeper into the village. We were screaming at least in the same intensity as our attackers if not more.


We stopped after 60 or 70 metres, because riding car on that kind of road in full speed wasn't easy. I was afraid that we would never get out of this ... village. No more than two minutes lasted our peace (sorry master yoda speaking).
We were screaming to each other our possibilities, then suddenly three motorbikes came next to the car. Two men on each. I was surprise, how they manage to took their motorbikes so fast? It was like from Hollywood movie, we in car trying to get rid of them and these people trying to stop the car, and take us out. It was clear for us that if we would be out of the car, they would kill us without questions and no one could ever know what's happened to us there. They managed to strangled our driver again but when the car run through something on the road and jumped a bit, he stopped. At the same time another motorbikes approached from the left side and the villager tried to drag Tony out through the window, tearing his yellow shirt a bit but wasn't able to take him out. He even tried to open locker on the doors but I immediately locked it again.
It happened at least three times. Then Tony finally managed to close the window. 

Both windows in the front were already closed when arrived to the end of the road. 

Part 2

Visiting 19th largest city in the world

We finally arrived in Tehran. Alive! As soon as we parked the car we exhaled all stress from the journey.

We hurried to the meeting point - Laleh Park - where we were supposed to meet Teheran couchsurfers. 

 The very first person we met was a Polish guy, Dawid. He was there with some German guys and lovely Persian girl (who lived in Vienna) for summer internship as members of IAESTE organization. 

After that we were joined by Tehranians. At the time we had no idea that we'd find a great friend among them. I mean Mohsen aka our Brother aka Master Mike (but we'll get there) and his sister. He was very quiet that time.After the meeting we split up. Tony and Martin were smuggled into dormitory by the IAESTE people and I went to visit Elmira, my CS host.

 If moving from Rzeszów to Kraków changed my perception of distance, visiting Tehran was like revolution. This city is HUGE. 730 sq km makes quite an impression. Luckily I got a ride from one of the couchsurfers.

Elmira's flat was really beautiful, she herself was very nice. I also met her mother who was in Poland sometime ago. We talked a bit about traveling, plans for future, ect. and went to sleep. Listening to Elmira and her mother I really liked the sound of Persian language.

The next day we were supposed to go to the Contemporary Art Museum. I got up, had breakfast, asked Elmira for direction and set out. It was quite complicated for me since I was used to travel by two means of transport within the city. There I had to take a taxi to get to the metro station. Then I went by two metro trains to the center, then I had to take another taxi (and, for the first time in my life, I shared it with total strangers). The journey to the Museum took me two hours.

After visiting the Museum, we met Mohsen for the city tour. We were supposed to meet his sister as well but she couldn't come. He told us he was a tourism student and suggested a trip to Qeshm Island in Persian Gulf. We agreed to go there after visiting Persepolis.

During the walk around the city we saw almost all important places. Then we ate in the park, hiding from police because of Ramadan.

We also visited the bazaar Martin bought a new shirt :)

Then we met Mohsen's friend, Minoo and saw Iranian wrestling training.

When the sun went down, we went to meet our European friends for dinner with water pipe. We were a bit late because of some metro malfunction. We got stuck on a metro station and, after long waiting, decided to take a taxi. Unfortunately, Minoo had to leave us.

Terribly hungry we finally found our friends. The dinner was very nice but it was getting late and we had to go back. Since there was no bus, we had to take taxi. The guys tried to bargain with drivers. In the end, I went to Elmira's with Mohsen, who had to make sure I entered the building safely.

TIP: Monday is a day when all museums in Iran are closed. But on Monday Sept 6th 2010 we decided to visit National Museum of Iran before we left for Esfahan. Tony suggested that we try everything to get inside. We even talked to the manager, very nice lady in chadora (actually, all ladies there were wearing chadoras). We asked for her permission, told her it was our last day in Tehran and how important it was for our cultural studies and she allowed us to enter for 20 minutes. We had whole museum for ourselves. There were many beautiful things there, jewelry, statues, weapons, parts of Persepolis buildings, even the Salt Man - well preserved human body found in salt mine in 1993.

After that we spent some more time with Mohsen who was with us all day long. We bought train tickets, ate dinner and planned to meet in Shiraz.

Kandovan

On our third day in Iran we visited the village of Kandovan. We went with our friends from couchsurfing by two cars. Our driver was Masoud. The funny thing is, the route was about 45 km but we stopped two or three times to eat or drink something :) When we reached our destination, we met Babak and his friend.

Kandovan is very similar to Cappadocia but still totally inhabited. The people live there in traditional way, they have mules, hens and sell what they make on their own - dried herbs, fruit etc. When you stand in front of the front door of one household, you also stand on a roof of the house below you.

We climbed the hill, got to see some interiors, children hiding from strangers, older people doing the usual things. It's really hard to say how big those houses actually are, I guess they have much more space than they look like. After all, when you're a visitor, you only see what they want you to see.

After seeing the cave houses we went to a market place where people were selling everything they made - herbs, fruit and delicious jelly-like flat things. I don't know how they call it but I think they're quite popular in Iran because later in Teheran a woman was selling it on subway. I liked it because it was sweet but also a bit sour. We also bought some mint tea.

Tony and Martin disappeared for a while and came back with beautiful shots of the whole village:

 

On the way back we saw an abandoned village in the same fashion as Kandovan. The difference was that you couldn't tell it was a village by just looking from the road. It looked like a regular hill. But when we came closer we could see houses dug in the ground and went inside.

We came back to Tabriz in the late afternoon and wanted to get the bus to Teheran but our driver Masoud invited us for coffee and accepting that invitation was the beginning of a series of unexpected events.

Tabriz - the friendly city

After getting off in the city center we understood that taxi drivers are the same everywhere. We went around one crossroad twice and would go once more if we didn't protest. We were thirsty, so we went to a shop to buy some water. The price didn't seem right, so Tony asked random guys about the price. We found out that we got "tourist rate", higher than normally. What we didn't know yet, was that we'd just met really good friends. There were Babak and Payam. They invited us for tea near the Blue Mosque and we talked a bit. We also decided that it was a good place for Couchsurfing meeting.

That night we slept on a camp site but we didn't want to rent a tent and we just slept on the ground, a girl between two guys.

In the morning, a man watering the grass woke us up and told us to move. Then Payam and his friend showed up and took us for a ride around the city, helped us exchanging money and took us to an Internet cafe, where we send message to local CS community to come for the meeting.

After that we spend some time in a park with our new friends. We were talking and playing chess.

When the night was falling, Payam's mother came with a meal she cooked especially for us. It turned out, they lived nearby.

Before we realized it, we were late for the meeting we organized! We speeded to the Blue Mosque with Payam and his friend and were amazed by a number of people awaiting us.

During the meeting we found out that it was the very first Couchsurfing meeting in Tabriz and some people who joined us didn't even know what was Couchsurfing! They were just random people who wanted to talk.

That night we stayed at Amir's house and we talked till 4am. Funny thing, he was in Poland once :)

For the next day we arranged a trip to Kandovan.